Ok so this chapter has a different name then what I said in the last chapter and there's a reason for that

This was originally gonna be the last chapter in the JNPR arc but it turns out there was a lot more to go over than I thought

If I wanted to include everything I wanted to include in this chapter than it would be MUCH longer and that's something I wanna avoid, don't wanna make things too long ya know?

So there's gonna be one more chapter in the JNPR arc, but for now I hope you enjoy this one!

Also P.S. huge thanks to Petrus for proof reading this, you're the best bud

"Woohoo!" Spirits were high in the dorm of team IFMS. Especially when it came to Mina who just seemed to be glowing the entire day after her battle with Cardin. Though calling it a battle was a bit of a stretch as it was more a one sided beat down on her side and easily one of the most satisfying moments of her life. Sure she's tussled with plenty of bullies before but Cardin pretty much checked every single box in a person she hates so taking him down felt even better than the other bullies she's dealt with. "I am on cloud nine baby and I don't plan on coming back down!"

"We're quite aware at this point," Fumikage commented as he went over some notes he took in health class. It was impossible for the rest of their team, heck all of the first years, not to notice just how much energy Mina had after combat class. It was almost scary. But he'd be lying if he said that watching Mina take down Cardin like that wasn't satisfying. "It wouldn't hurt you to be more modest about your victory,"

"Oh come on, if Cardin won he would be bragging about it all the way to Atlas." Mina huffed a little as she laid down in her bed and crossed her arms behind her head, a smug smile on her face. No one could really deny that, in the extremely unlikely scenario that Cardin won he would be bragging about it nonstop. "Besides it's not like I'm gonna be all in everyone's face about it, I'm just enjoying it for the time being. Let me have that at least."

"We will Mina, it's alright," Izuku gave her a brief smile as he turned to face her while sitting at the desk they had in the room before looking back down at the book he was going over. But he found it hard to pay attention to it as he thought back to his best friend. Despite Mina absolutely destroying Cardin during the fight…Jaune didn't exactly look too happy about it. Heck he was pretty quiet all day, but after combat class he was just dead silent and didn't seem to look at anyone or pay attention to anything. It just really worried him. He texted him a few times earlier, and even tried to call him about ten minutes ago but Jaune never answered. "Hope he's ok…"

"Hm?" Shoto seemed to overhear Izuku muttering and turned to him. "Did you say something Izuku?"

"O-Oh not really," Izuku put a smile back on as he tried to reassure his team that things were fine. This wasn't something they needed to worry about so he didn't wanna risk killing the good mood everyone was in. "Just going over some history notes I'm gonna help Velvet with later."

"Velvet?" Shoto blinked a few times in curiosity, the name being completely foreign to him. "Who's that?"

"Well remember the faunus girl Cardin and his team was picking on?" Izuku asked, his stomach still turning a bit in anger from the memory though he was able to push that aside. "I ran into her at the library yesterday after classes and she asked me if I could help her with history class, she's a second year but she was held back in Oobleck's class."

"I see," Fumikage nodded in response "That was very kind of you Izuku."

"Yeah…it was…" Mina suddenly got off of her bed as a sly smirk came to her face. "That's really nice of you Izuku~" Izuku rose a brow at Mina's tone but suddenly blushed as she started stepping closer to him and leaned down to look at him with half lidded eyes. "Turned into her night in shining armor and now helping out in class~ You really know how to swoon a girl huh~?"

"S-Swoon?!" And in an instant Izuku's face exploded into the color red as he rose his arms and waved his hands around in denial. "N-N-No! You g-got the wrong idea M-Mina! It-It's nothing like that at all! I'm just t-trying to h-help her w-with class!"

"Uh-huh, suuuuure~" Mina sent Izuku a wink that made a shiver go up his spine. "That's what they all say~"

"I suggest you cease your efforts of denial Izuku." Fumikage told his leader. He was sure his leader was telling the truth about the situation but he knew Mina wouldn't let up with what she was doing. "You're engaged in a losing battle,"

"Hey come on don't be a spoil sport Fumikage!" Mina told her faunus teammate before wrapping an arm around Izuku's neck and pulled him closer to her, and with her standing up and him sitting it meant Izuku's face was pressed near Mina's chest which darn near knocked Izuku out cold as steam started erupting from his head. "This could be the first romance of our class~! Didn't know you had a thing for bunny girls Izuku~"

"Please…stop…" Izuku wished the ground would just swallow him up right now so that way he didn't have to deal with any of this anymore.

Just then the door to the bathroom opened up and a tired looking Eri stepped out wearing her Pajama's. "I'm done…" Eri yawned out, having brushed her teeth for the night and was more than ready for a nights rest.

"Aw, come on Eri," Mina grinned as she finally released Izuku and went to go pick up Eri. "You're sleeping with Aunt Mina tonight, your older brother might be having some fun dreams tonight~"

"What does that mean?" Eri asked, not understanding what Mina was talking about at all. Bless her childhood innocence.

"I'll tell you when you're older sweetie." Mina giggled as she got herself and Eri all snuggled up into bed together. "Goodnight guys!"

"Goodnight," All the guys said as they got in bed and got ready for a goodnight's sleep. Izuku closed and put away the books on the desk before turning off the lights in the room and getting comfortable in his bed for the night. But before he went to sleep, he pulled out his scroll on last time and began sending a text to Jaune…

Hey, I know things have been rough for you in Beacon lately, I'm really sorry about that.

I know you struggled a bit in Combat School but the fact that you made it into Beacon proves just how strong you really are, how much I know you are.

And just like Combat School, I'm here for you. If you ever need help with anything, or if you just need someone to talk to you can always come to me. And I know how I can always go to you if I need help with anything.

Sure we've been busy with our classes and teams, but I'm more than willing to make time for you Jaune.

Please remember that, ok?

Have a good night.

Once Izuku hit send on his message, he plugged his scroll in for the night, closed his eyes, and slowly sank down into slumber.

THE NEXT DAY

Jaune was just in pure hell right now.

That was the best way he could describe it.

After last night, he just couldn't get any sleep. The conversation with Pyrrha and then Cardin continuously haunting his mind. First he yelled and screamed at Pyrrha for wanting to help him and then revealed his secret of sneaking into beacon to her. And of all the people that had to overhear that, it was Cardin Winchester himself who pretty much had Jaune on a leash.

Jaune just couldn't rest knowing that at any moment, at any time, Cardin could spill the beans, tell a teacher or Ozpin himself and Jaune would be force to go back to his home town. He would leave his team down a member and a leader, and have to explain everything to his entire family who would probably think he was a disgrace and a total failure. Especially his dad who would probably be telling Jaune he was right in that he wasn't Huntsman material.

All of his life he wanted to be a huntsman just like him, but Jaune knew his father never believed in him. He didn't want Jaune going to Combat School because he thought his son couldn't handle it, and look at that he was right. Because here Jaune was, only in Beacon because he lied on official documents and now at the mercy of one of the biggest jerks in the school.

Not only that, but Pyrrha was acting cold to him as well. As his team woke up and got ready, Pyrrha didn't say a word to him. Not a hello, a good morning or anything. She just stared at him for a second, slightly narrowed her eyes, and turned away from him and just did her usual morning routine with Nora and Ren none the wiser to what was going on.

On top of all that, as soon as he grabbed his scroll and opened it up he saw the text Izuku sent him last night. Izuku saying that he was always there for Jaune, would always make time for him, and offered his help, which was typical for Izuku. Nothing really has changed since they were kids, Izuku would always try to help Jaune out despite being leaps and bounds ahead of him. "Everyone thinks I need help don't they…" Jaune muttered to himself with a saddened expression as he gathered up the books he would need for the day before heading out, not ready for whatever the teachers had instore and especially not ready for whatever Cardin had planned for him.

And so Jaune exited the dorm room and followed his team, though he lagged behind them a little as he felt like Pyrrha didn't exactly wanna walk next to him at the moment. Jaune just looked down the entire time as he walked towards class, just wanting to be alone with his thoughts at the moment. "Hey Jaune!" But apparently the universe had other plans for him as a familiar high pitched voice spoke up as Ruby came up from behind him, her team exiting their dorm not long after his. "Good morning!"

"Morning Ruby," Jaune tried to keep his tone neutral, not trying to sound upset or anything that Ruby could potentially pick up on. "What's up?"

"Oh nothing much, just wanted to see how you were doing after everything?" Jaune flinched after hearing that. Again, another person that thought he needed help. That he needed to be checked up on. That just didn't believe in him. "And also wanted to know what you thought about the fight yesterday!"

"T-The fight…" Jaune swallowed a lump in his throat as Ruby simply skipped next to him with her teammates following a little bit behind. "Well it was really…something alright…"

"I know right! Ah it was sooo cool! I had no idea Mina was so strong!" Ruby started fangirling about what she saw in combat class yesterday, not noticing the uncomfortable look on Jaune's face. "I mean the way she was able to keep up that dance rhythm the whole time to throw Cardin off, and oh my gosh those high caliber boot pistols! I gotta ask her how she modified them, maybe I could try and do something similar since Yang's always on my case about how I need to get better at close quarters combat and-"

"Um Ruby," Jaune spoke up and cut Ruby off her run on sentence. "I-I kinda just want some peace and quiet before school starts ok?"

"…Jaune are you sure you're ok?" Once Ruby stopped talking and actually got a good look at Jaune's face and his expression, she could see there was more than he was letting on. His eyes were baggy, he was tense, and she could notice him lightly shaking. "You don't look so hot,"

"I'm fine ok." Jaune said in a rather irritated tone as he started speed walking away.

"You sure?" Ruby asked once again as she tried to catch up with him. "If you want I can take you to the nurse, I'm sure she can just write a note for you and-"

"I said I'm fine Ruby!" Jaune snapped as he once again turned towards her with a glare, causing her eyes to widen as she took a step back. "I don't need any help! I-I'm fine! Just…" Jaune couldn't finish the sentence as memories of last night played in his head, and considering how that ended he just decided to end it there and walked forward again as Ruby just stood up, processing what just happened.

"Sheesh." Yang spoke up as the rest of team RWBY caught up with their leader with Yang lightly glaring at Jaune, Blake raising a brow, and Weiss not really looking too interested. "What's up with that guy?"

"I-I don't know." Ruby stuttered a bit as she shook her head. "I don't get it, you'd think he'd be happy after yesterday. After what Mina did there's no way Cardin's gonna mess with him again."

"Jaune's always been weird," Weiss simply decided to shrug it off as she walked forward again. "I'm sure whatever's going on isn't our concern, let's just head to class."

"Someone's sensitive," Blake commented sarcastically getting a slight glare from Weiss as well as giggles from Ruby and Yang. "But I guess you're right, I'm sure Jaune and his team can deal with whatever's going on."

"Yeah…I guess…" Ruby still wasn't too sure, but she decided to leave it alone for now.

PROFESSOR PEACH'S CLASS

"Alright students I got a special announcement for you all!" Was the first thing Professor Peach said as soon as everyone in her class was accounted for. "In exactly one week from today we'll all be going on a field trip!"

"Oh cool a field trip!" Denki shouted as he rose his fist, the rest of class growing interested as well. The first field trip of the school year, that was bound to be quiet the event. "Where are we going Professor Peach? Somewhere fun?"

"Of course! We're going to a forest invested with the creatures of Grimm! What's more fun than that!" Peach said in a way too enthusiastic tone that made Denki quickly face plant on his desk. While a few students were disappointed in this, other's like Yang and Katsuki who quite enjoyed getting to rumble with Grimm grew excited. "More specifically we will be going the forest of Forever Fall and-"

"Oh my gosh I love the Forever Fall Forest!" Weiss suddenly spoke up with a rather giddy tone that was unusual with her. "I've seen so many pictures in books but this'll be my first time actually-"

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT INTERRUPTING ME YOU LITTLE HEIRESS BRAT!?" Peach snapped at Weiss as her face turned to one of absolute rage, her voice practically shaking the room as Weiss paled out, letting out a squeak as she slowly lowered herself under the desk. After a few more moments of awkward silence Peach gained back her normal sweet expression before speaking again in a more controlled manner. "So as I was saying children we will be going to the Forever Fall Forest and camping out there, a way to test your survival skills as you will be given a budget of lien based on your teams performance on school this far to buy camping supplies. And you are only allowed to use the lien given to you to buy supplies, so no using your own money rich girl."

"Hey!" Weiss let out as she emerged from under the desk, her team having a good laugh at her expense. Especially when it came to Yang.

"Along with that you will each be required to gather up a jar of the special red sap that's only found in the trees of the Forever Fall Forest." Peach further explained to everyone. "I could hire a team to gather the sap for me but it's a lot cheaper to have you kids do it as free labor!"

"Well at least she's honest about it…" Blake said as many of the students gave Peach a blank look for her words.

"The lien you will be given will be delivered to your dorm rooms and should be there when you all go back to your rooms at the end of the school day, if not then report directly to me or Ozpin." Peach said as she pulled up a holographic image on her scroll for the whole class to see that showed differently colored lien cards with different numbers next to each of them. "Your team's grade average will determine how much Lien you get. If your team has an A average then you'll be camping in style! But if your team is full of dummies with bad grades enjoy potentially sleeping in the rain!"

"We won't just survive IFMS!" Mina said with a bright smile as she wrapped her arms around her teammates. "We're gonna live!"

"I should see if it'll be ok to bring Eri along or not…." Izuku muttered a bit in thought. If the forest was filled with Grimm like Peach said then he would have to find someone to watch Eri while he and his team went on the trip. "Maybe Ozpin but I don't wanna bother him too much…"

"Ooooo how much money do you think we'll get?" Nora asked her team enthusiastically as she looked at the various amounts that was on Peach's screen. "Ooooooo, think we'll get enough for an RV?!"

"I doubt anyone will have that much Nora," Ren told his friend before looking towards Jaune. "We should see how much money we have at the end of the day and make a list of what we need and what we can afford."

"Y-Yeah, sounds good." Jaune nodded before looking at Pyrrha. "W-What do you think Pyrrha?"

"…" Pyrrha didn't spare a word as she briefly glanced at Jaune before looking forward again.

All Jaune could do was let out a sigh. This was going to be a long week.

AIZAWA'S CLASS

"Trust is the most important thing about being a part of a team," As soon as all the first years made it to the courtyard, Aizawa wasted no time in starting up class with the topic they were going to go over today. And of course he had to talk about the most important part of being in a team in the first place. "You've all been paired up for a while, but it's only a fraction of the amount of time you'll all be spending together during your time at Beacon. Even then, it's only been simple school work and drama, nothing out in the field outside of your orientation. Being a team on an actual field assignment."

After saying that Ruby rose her hand and asked something that came into her head after their teacher told them that. "Like the camping trip we're going on in the Forever Fall Forest?" Ruby inquired, feeling that what Shota was going over had something to do with that. "Surviving out in the wilderness in a grimm infested area."

"In a way." Shota gave Ruby a light nod. She was on the right track but it was still a bit more complicated than that. "But even that will mostly be tame, the spot you're going to is one with lower Grimm populations and you'll have some of the teachers as well as the rest of your class going with you. What I'm referring to is going to a dangerous area with possibly only your team to rely on to fight and protect you, and you protect them as well. But none of that can be done without trust. Look to the person next to you and ask yourself, can I trust them with my life?"

And so the various teams and their members did that. Ren and Nora looked at each other and smiled fondly at the thought as Nora gave Ren a quick boop on the nose. Izuku and Shoto looked at each other with a serious expression, meeting each other's eyes before nodding in unison. Ruby and Blake looked to each other as Ruby gave Blake a big grin and thumbs up with Blake giving a soft smile.

"Team," Tenya spoke up as all of team TEKD looked to their leader. "As your leader and friend, I promise to do everything in my power to make sure should we ever face a deadly situation, we can all walk away from it with our heads held high!"

"Same here man," Eijiro smirked as he gave his teammates a thumbs up. "I'll make sure no man gets left behind."

"Hmph, someones' gotta be able to pick up your guys' slack," Katsuki rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, quickly growing irritated at the corniness of all this. This was the reason he didn't like this class.

"Hey I can pick up my own slack thank you very much," Denki claimed as he puffed his chest out and tried to look more imposing. "Ain't no one's getting past me! I'll shock em right back where they came!"

"Heh, you two ain't gotta worry about anything," Dark Shadow spoke up as he came out of Fumikage and wrapped his arms around both Mina and Fumikage. "I'll take down any grimm that's trying to rip you apart,"

"Aaaawww," Mina gushed out as she pet Dark Shadow's head, causing a small blush to come from the sentient semblance. "Aren't you a super strong bird? Yes you are!"

"Please do not speak to him like that," Fumikage sweat dropped as he crossed his arms. "You'll only encourage his habits."

But it wasn't smooth for quite everyone. For Yang and Weiss, the atmosphere with them was anything but friendly and trusting. They glared right into each other's eyes and it pretty much told everyone how much they didn't trust each other. Yang wouldn't trust Weiss to look after a freaking goldfish, thinking the ice queen would find it a waste of time and just leave it to go belly up in the bowl without a second thought.

For Weiss, there's no way she would trust the blond with her life in the field of battle. Yang was pretty much the definition of reckless, head strong, and brute force. She didn't have any hint of strategy and just went in and punched first and think of a plan later, and she would most likely prefer to do things alone than work as a team. Which just proved Weiss' point in Yang's coddling of Ruby wasn't good for her as when Ruby has to battle by herself she wouldn't be prepared for it as Yang would likely go off on her own and just leave her sister to fend for herself, which was just asking for disaster to happen.

For team CRDL they pretty much didn't take Aizawa's message to the class seriously and mostly just laughed mockingly while pushing each other around and punching each other's arms.

And then there was Jaune and Pyrrha. Despite how Jaune knew what Pyrrha thought about him at the moment, Jaune dared to look her way and to his surprise she actually looked back at him. For that brief seconds their eyes were looking right into the others, but soon Pyrrha frowned and looked down before looking away from Jaune entirely. Jaune sighed and soon looked down in sadness as well. 'Yeah, that's not surprising.' Jaune thought as he stared at the ground. 'I wouldn't trust myself with someone's life either…'

"So for this exercise we'll be testing out the trust you have in your teammates. You'll be competing with your own team today." Shota revealed, taking a few people off guard. Usually they competed with other teams, not each other. "Before you ask how you'll be graded on this, similar to the exercise with the rope it's not about beating the other team it's about finishing with a passing time, and each side of a competing team accounts for each half of the grade you'll be receiving for this."

"Oh I get it," Izuku said as he slammed a fist into a open palm as he quickly understood what Shota meant by that. "So if one half a team scores a 45% and the other scores a 30% that means the overall score would be a 75% right?"

"Correct," Shota was glad at least one student understands how this works. "And once again you and your partner will be bound together."

"Oh no…" Denki swallowed a lump in his throat as he glanced at Katsuki and memories of being dragged by him while he and the rest of TEKD were tied to that rope together quickly flashed in his mind. "We're not gonna be tied together on a rope again are we?"

"No." Shota's words quickly got a few people to breathe a sigh of relief…until Shota reached into a bag he brought and took out a pair of hand cuffs. "You'll be cuffed together with your partner."

"THAT'S WORSE!" Denki yelled out as he and few other students quickly started panicking at the aspect of hand cuffed to someone. "Aw man this is gonna suck…"

"You and your partner will be cuffed by your hands and legs, bounding you to each other. Then you'll be forced to cooperate and trust each other, otherwise doing anything will be virtually impossible." Shota explained his reasoning to this insane process that many were already dreading. "And your goal will be climbing this…" Shota then grabbed his scroll from his pocket and pressed a button on it, causing the ground in the courtyard to open up and from it rose an incredibly large rock wall that had to be at least about 100 feet tall and at the very top of it was a bell with a rope attached to it.

"W-Woah…" Jaune let out, gulping a bit at the shear height of it. "We have to climb that…while handcuffed to each other…"

"Yes, and if you don't want to fall I suggest you try and work together," Shota gave an advice/warning for this exercise. Their aura should protect them even from a fall from the very top, but it sure wasn't gonna be painless either. "Now then, team RWBY you'll be up first. Ruby and Blake, you're team one, Yang and Weiss you're team two."

"Alright!" Ruby rose a fist up enthusiastically as she wrapped an arm around Blake's waist and pulled the black haired girl closer. "We got this Blake."

"Heh, sure." Blake couldn't help but shed a tiny smile. Ruby's enthusiasm was just a little contagious. "Let's do it."

Meanwhile Yang and Weiss, they weren't at all happy with this. "What?!" Both girls let out in unison as they looked to their teacher and pointed to the other girl. "Me!? Cuffed to her?! But-"

"Is that a problem?" Shota suddenly asked them in a rather dark sounding tone. Activating his semblance, his glowing red eyes glared at the girls as a dark and threatening aura surrounded him.

"N-No sir!" Both girls immediately backed down from their protest in fear.

"Good." Shota deactivated his semblance as he tossed Ruby and Blake, and Weiss and Yang two pairs of handcuffs each. "Now get yourselves ready, you'll start climbing on my mark. When you reach the top ring the bell and that'll be your time. And pick which rock you climb on carefully, some of them have been rigged to be unstable and break once you grip them."

"Doesn't that seem like a bit much?" Ruby asked as she and Blake cuffed their left and right wrist together respectively. "We're already attached to each other and that'll make climbing hard enough."

"When you're out in the field stuff like this will often happen." Shota properly explained. Nature was gonna screw them just as much as the Grimm would so this was a necessity. "It's up to you and your teammate to find a correct path to climb up and reach the top."

"A grueling task given the circumstances but I do understand the point." Fumikage crossed his arms as he looked over the climbing wall. "Nature is a cruel mistress, more so than the grimm themselves. While traversing any environment an accident could easily occur at any point, keeping your guard up and senses short is a necessity if you want to survive."

"That's so manly…" Eijiro said, in awe at the faunus' words.

"Can't believe I have to be cuffed to you…" Yang growled out as she, extremely reluctantly, handcuffed her and Weiss' wrist together, binding them. Ever since Yang found out what Weiss wrote in that letter about Ruby, the blond hasn't been on good terms with Weiss either. Despite what Weiss told her sister, the heiress just found Ruby some weak little kid not fit to be a leader. Honestly to Yang, Ruby was the best choice as leader. That wasn't just her big sister instincts talking, it was true. Yang knew for a fact she wouldn't make a good leader, while she liked Blake she didn't seem like the type to give orders, and a team lead by Weiss is not a team Yang wants to be a part of. Yet ice queen had the gall to say otherwise and throw a fit about it and then start saying stuff about Ruby behind her back. "If you screw this up for us ice queen I swear-"

"Unlike some people Yang, I wouldn't be petty enough to do that." Weiss spoke with a bit of venom in her voice as she cuffed her and Yang's legs together. Weiss couldn't believe how Yang has been acting recently. First she violates her mail, which was a lawful offence, but goes crazy on her after seeing what she wrote about Ruby. Weiss didn't get it, it's not like she was wrong with what she said. Sure Ruby was more skillful than other people her age, she did hold her own rather well against Shoto who Weiss knew was the son of a rather famous Huntsman, but when it comes to being a leader, to Weiss, Ruby just didn't have the qualifications. Skipping ahead two years means she lacks the real world experience and maturity to be a leader, and Yang babying her wasn't helping that at all but she just refused to see it. "I want to get a good grade, so just try and actually work together with someone."

"Hey, you two ok?" Ruby asked as she and Blake were all connected and managed to walk to the front of the rock wall together. "Looking kinda…tense there."

"I'm sure they're fine Ruby." Blake told her team's leader with her usual tone. Though she did give Weiss and Yang a brief look as if to tell them to keep it together before looking up. "Let's just focus on getting the top ourselves, they can handle it."

"Oh, alright then," Ruby shrugged as she got ready to go at any time.

"Ready," Shota began as he pulled out two stop watches and pressed the start buttons to both at the same time. "Go."

"Jump!" Ruby let out as she and Blake jumped together in unison, each grabbing onto a rock with their free hand and grabbing the same rock with their joined hand, doing the same with the feet with each rock they step onto. "Ok Blake, just like with the rope exercise. Move together, get a rhythm going, and look out for any unstable rocks."

"Right." Blake nodded as she and Ruby started to make their way up the wall.

While Ruby and Blake quickly proved to be doing rather well at the trust test, Weiss and Yang…weren't doing so well. And they hadn't even gotten on the wall yet. "Come on Weiss!" Yang let out as she tried to rush ahead. "We gotta-AH!" But Yang rushing forward only served in knocking Weiss off her feet which in turn caused Yang to fall down.

"Yang!" Weiss yelled as she glared at her teammate. She called it, Yang was just gonna rush in without thinking. "Did you seriously forget we're cuffed together!? Use your head for once!"

"I am! I'm using it to tell us we gotta hurry up so just stand up!" Yang yelled back as she forced herself and Weiss back onto their feet. "Alright Ice Queen you ready to climb or you afraid you're gonna break a nail or something?"

"YOU! GRRRRR!" Weiss viciously growled out as she decided to just silence herself. Getting into an argument with Yang would just waste more time than they already had. So she just tried to keep up with Yang and climbed onto the wall as Yang did. "Just try and look out for unstable rocks!"

"Yeah, yeah I will," Yang rolled her eyes as she looked up and saw Ruby and Blake already made a good amount of progress. "Don't get too comfortable up there guys, we're coming for you!"

"Huh, weird…" Mina commented as she watched and heard the interactions going on between Yang and Weiss. It didn't take a genius to see that something was going on between the two of them. "Wonder what's going on between them? First Weiss was upset with Ruby and now Weiss and Yang are at each other's throats."

"Well they are sisters, it's possible Yang's upset at Weiss for that," Shoto brought up a rather solid point. If someone was giving their sister a hard time most likely said sister would be upset at that person. "And we've seen Yang does seem to have a problem with her temper."

"That's putting it lightly…" Denki muttered out as he rubbed his cheek. He swore he could still feel that punch Yang delivered to him on their first day.

"Maybe…" Izuku muttered as he looked at the two again and saw the two continued to argue and struggle to properly climb up the rock wall with Ruby and Blake already nearing the top. He remembers his talk to Weiss about Ruby and from his view it seemed the two were actually getting along now, so why was Yang acting like this with Weiss if the heiress was treating the blond's little sister a lot better now. It just didn't make any sense to him. "Maybe I can talk to her about it later."

"Yang slow down!" Weiss let out as she struggled to properly keep up with how fast Yang was trying to get them to climb. "You're gonna rip my arm off!"

"Ya snooze ya lose ice queen!" Yang let out as she didn't slow down in the slightest despite Weiss' protest. Girl needed to learn how to keep up with her. "You said you wanted a good grade and the best way to that is to go as fast as possible!"

"Yes but you're gonna make me slip!" And the universe just seemed to screw Weiss over as right after the heiress said that she ended up grabbing a rock that had a few cracks in it, that she didn't notice due to focusing on keeping up with Yang, and like Shota said right as Weiss gripped it broke apart and the heiress lost her footing and slipped off. "AAAHHH!"

"Woah!" Yang felt the weight of Weiss pull on her as she kept her grip on the rock she had grabbed onto…and found it surprisingly easy. "Huh?" Yang looked back to see Weiss dangling there along with her hand and once the initial fall was over Yang didn't feel too much of a struggle to stay on as Weiss was rather easy to simply carry like this. "Wow, you're really light there Weiss. Heh, I think Ruby's heavier than you."

"Hey have you seen all the sugar your sister eats!" Weiss defended her lighter frame with the fact that Ruby consumed much more sugar than her. She takes 5 sugars in her coffee for Oum's sake! "It's doesn't take a genius to figure that out!"

"There's also another reason~" Yang decided to take the opportunity to tease Weiss about something else. "Don't exactly have much going on in the chest department do ya ice queen?"

"…" Weiss was completely silent as she looked down at her own chest and quickly figured out what Yang was referring too as her cheeks went red. Out of everyone on team RWBY, even including Ruby herself who was 2 years younger than her, Weiss was easily the flattest out of everyone. "Hey!"

"Relax Weiss, don't get so flat minded with me," Yang's pun only served to fuel Weiss' anger towards her. "But you know, considering how easy you are to carry around that does give me an idea."

"What do you…wait…" Weiss's eyes widened in horror as Yang quickly grab a rock with the hand that connected them, not letting Weiss get her footing again. "Yang Xiao Long don't you da-"

"Here we go!" Yang then took off like a rocket, climbing up as fast as possible while dragging Weiss with her every bit of the way with the heiress screaming the entire time. "Calm down Weiss this'll be over soon!"

"STOP ALREADY!" Weiss let out as she tried desperately to find a way to get free of Yang. "YOU'RE GONNA RIP ME APART!"

"Glad's it's not me this time," Denki let out before glancing at Katsuki and gulping a bit at the possibility of them being paired up during this. "At least I hope so…"

Ding!

"Woohoo!" Ruby cheered as she and Blake reached the top first with the team leader managing to ring the bell first. "Way to go Blake, we make a pretty good team."

"I guess we do," Blake gave a small smile towards Ruby before looking down, her eyes soon widening. "We might want to move."

"Why?" Ruby then looked down as well and quickly saw the reason why. "Woah! Look out!"

"Outta the way!" Yang called out as Ruby and Blake managed to jump out of Yang's way just in time for the blond to make it to the top and ring the bell as well, completing the exercise for both groups. "Alright! Way to go team!"

"Um…Yang…" Ruby let out in worry as she looked to the white haired girl dangling off Yang. "Is Weiss ok?"

"Uuuuuugh…" Was all Weiss could let out with swirls appearing in her eyes.

"…Eh," Yang simply shrugged, not too concerned with the whole thing. "She's a tough girl she can handle it." And with that Yang started climbing back down. Ruby and Blake looked to each for a brief second before they started climbing down as well.

"I don't get paid enough for this," Shota sighed out as team RWBY reached the ground, with Weiss still extremely dazed. "Team RWBY, get yourselves uncuffed and take Weiss to the infirmary to make sure she's alright, I'll grade your performance later."

"Y-Yes sir," Ruby nodded as she got the key Aizawa threw to them with the girls quick to detach themselves from each other.

"Well…I think that went pretty well right guys?" Yang asked with a cheeky smile as she uncuffed herself from Weiss, only to look to see Ruby and Blake giving her…less than amused looks. "What?" Yang shrugged, acting as if she did nothing wrong. All this got was a scoff from Blake and a head shake from Ruby as they both picked Weiss up and began their walk to the nurse's office. "Come on guys what?!"

"There's definitely something going on with them," Shota muttered as he watched team RWBY walk away. Shota made sure Yang and Weiss were cuffed together, just his way of confirming what he was seeing. There was some serious tension going on between Yang and Weiss and Shota had to get to the bottom of it. It seemed like team RWBY made some good leeway in working together, but now they just took a few steps back again. That was acceptable for Shota. If they were gonna fight about something every week, then they couldn't work as a team. But that would have to be saved for later, he still had the other teams to get the handle of. "Team JNPR, you're up next. Nora, Ren, you two are together. Jaune, Pyrrha, you're the second pair."

"W-What…" Why? Why did Shota just have to make things infinitely more complicated? Their teacher just loved torturing them didn't he? Jaune knew Pyrrha wasn't interested in doing just about anything with him anymore, but now they were gonna be force to handcuff themselves together. Glancing to the red head, Jaune wasn't able to see her expression as she lowered her head, her hair shadowing over her face. "So P-Pyrrha-"

"Let's get this over with." Pyrrha's cold tone made Jaune flinch as she walked to where team RWBY dropped them, Ren and Nora having already cuffed themselves to each other.

"R-Right…" Jaune slowly nodded his head as he and Pyrrha shared no more words and simply cuffed their arms and legs to each other like they were supposed to before lining up in front of the rock wall. "Well, at least we saw how team RWBY climbed the wall, we just gotta take the path they took and we'll be fine."

"That reminds me," But once again Shota just had to mess things up for Jaune. With the click of a button on his scroll, the rock wall was lowered back into the ground with a new one popping up with the rocks all now in different positions. "I can't have you doing that, it would be too easy. There's a new wall for each team."

"Of course there is…" Jaune lowered his head in dismay before looking back up. The wall seemed even taller from this angle.

"Well it can't be helped!" Nora simply shrugged it off before pointing her thumb to her back while grinning at Ren. "Hope on Renny! I'm taking us above the clouds!"

"Ok." Ren didn't argue with Nora's logic and stepped behind Nora and wrapped his free arm around her. He made sure to angle his leg so it was right next to Nora's so the cuff there didn't cause issue, and he placed his cuffed arm right on top of her cuffed arm to try and make it the most efficient.

"Ooooo, holding my hand," Nora smiled out as she glanced back to Ren. "Ren you sly dog~"

"Please don't turn this into anything," Ren knew what Nora was doing and did not want to be a part of it. Especially in front of the entire class.

"Hey Jaune!" Jaune flinched as the voice of Cardin called out to him. Crap, what was Cardin gonna make him do?

"What do you want Winchester?" Mina was the first to respond to Cardin as she glared at him. "I swear if you try anything…"

"Hey, hey, hey relax there I'm not gonna try anything." Cardin played innocent as he put on a friendly smile, despite the fact that he wanted nothing more than pound Mina to a pulp, as he looked to Jaune again. "I just wanted to tell Jaune to take it nice and slow, don't wanna grab any of those weak rocks do ya man?"

Jaune rose a brow at that. What did Cardin mean by…..oh….oh crap. Jaune quickly pieced it together. That's exactly what Cardin wanted Jaune to do. And if he didn't do as the bully implied then…well…it'll be a lot worse than just falling down a rock wall. "Y-Yeah…s-sure thing…." Jaune gulped and stuttered out as Pyrrha briefly glanced at him with a confused look before looking back up.

"Ready…" After resetting his stop watches, Shota brought them both up and got ready to hit the buttons and record JNPR's time. "Go."

"Woohoo!" Nora wasted no time in running forward towards the wall. Unlike with Yang however this actually worked out as she and Ren were working in sync together with Ren essentially getting a pseudo piggy back ride from the ginger and as she jump up and clung onto the rock wall, their cuffed hands and feet grabbing the same rocks. "Come on Renny! Up, up, and away!"

With Nora and Ren quickly making distance, Jaune and Pyrrha quickly tried to catch up. "A-Alright Pyrrha, remember, nice and slow." Jaune smiled nervously as the two walked up to the wall together with Jaune and Pyrrha grabbing some of the rocks together to get started. "D-Don't wanna grab a-any bad rocks now do we? Hahaha…"

"Fine." Was all Pyrrha gave as a response as Jaune let out a sigh and the two began to climb up together.

Things seemed to go well for the team, better than team RWBY at first. Ren and Nora were making it up at a rather fast pace, faster than Blake and Ruby did, and eventually made it to the top and rang the bell. "Oh yeah! We're on top of the world baby!" Nora cheered as she grinned wildly as she looked down at the other teams. "Worship us like GODS!"

"Nora! Calm down!" Ren lightly scolded his teammate before looking down at Pyrrha and Jaune who were slowly approaching the halfway point. "Jaune, Pyrrha, are you two alright?"

"We're fine Ren! Sorry!" Pyrrha instinctively let out an apology for making Ren worry about them. "Come on Jaune, we need to hurry up."

"B-But…" Jaune was unable to find a retort for that. Despite Cardin's orders to take it nice and slow, he couldn't really argue with Pyrrha and ended up speeding up their climbing with her. That meant he would have to do one thing so that Cardin wouldn't spill the beans about him. He just hoped Pyrrha could walk off a bruised butt. And it just so happened that Jaune's eyes came across a rock that seemed to have a few cracks in it and gulped a bit. 'Sorry Pyrrha…' Jaune then went for the rock and just as he thought, as soon as he gripped it, it broke apart and made him lose his balance on the rock wall.

"AAAAAHHH!" Both Jaune and Pyrrha let out as they fell off the rock wall together. While Pyrrha did have the strength to have carried Jaune like Yang did with Weiss, unfortunately for her she was in the process of taking her hand off one rock to grab another which meant she was unable to stop the both of them from falling and landing on the ground with a loud thud, their aura's appearing around them to help cushion the blow.

"Ooooooo…" Everyone winced together as they saw Pyrrha and Jaune fall on the ground.

Meanwhile team CRDL smiled and quietly snickered at the sight, trying not to draw attention to themselves as Cardin called out with a grin. "Tried to warn ya man," Cardin let out, trying his best not to laugh out loud at the sight. Had to keep his cover after all.

"Oh no!" Nora let out as she fell to the ground as well while making sure Ren held onto her tight. Nora fell right on her feet and thanks to a combination of her aura and sheer toughness, she was perfectly fine as she and Ren helped the two on their feet. "Are you two ok?"

"Ugh…I'm gonna feel that tomorrow…" Jaune said as he grabbed his butt as he quickly looked to Pyrrha. "P-Pyrrha I am so s-"

"You two better hurry up," Shota pointed out as he stared at the watch recording Jaune and Pyrrha's time. "If your both fast you can just barely get a passing grade."

"Then come on." Pyrrha didn't waste any time and didn't spare Jaune any words as she tugged rather harshly on the cuffs binding them together to get Jaune moving. "Let's go."

"R-Right…" Was all Jaune could say as the two attempted to climb the wall again. Things between the two of them just seemed to be getting worse.

LUNCHROOM

"So how do you think team RWBY's doing?" Mina asked as she took a bite out of her food. Due to Weiss' little…incident during the exercise from last period, she wasn't present during lunch and neither were the other three members who were speaking to Shota about said incident. "I mean, getting an earful from Mr. Aizawa's never fun…"

"Is Weiss gonna be ok?" Eri asked as she leaned next to her big brother, the small faunus girl saddened about the lack of the heiress' presence. "I miss her."

"Don't worry Eri, she's gonna be fine." Izuku reassured Eri as he lightly patted her head to try and sooth his sister. He was worried about Weiss as well, but he was sure that she would be fine and they would see her by next period. Still though, he was pretty concerned about what was going on between her and Yang to have the blond pull something like that. "Just hope everything's ok between the rest of them…"

"There's definitely tension amongst their team," Fumikage spoke up before glancing towards JNPR. "And team RWBY isn't the only ones, is there something going on in your team Jaune."

"Uuuuuh…" Jaune nervously let out as he glanced between team IFMS and Pyrrha, the latter not paying any attention to him and just kept her head down and focusing on her food, as he tried to figure out what to say. Lying about it was getting harder and harder to pull off, but at the same time there was no way he could actually say what went on between him and Pyrrha for multiple reasons. "W-Well you see-"

"Yo Jauney boy," But another voice cut Jaune off that quickly made him flinch as well as make the other's at the table gain an irritated face. Looking to the source, they saw Cardin himself walking towards the table with a strangely friendly grin on his face. "What's taking you so long? We gonna eat lunch together or what?"

"What are you getting at now Cardin?" Mina was the first to speak up as she glared at Cardin and stood up. "Am I gonna have to teach you another lesson?"

"Yeah! You try and mess with our leader again and we're gonna break your legs good!" Nora shouted as she cracked her knuckles and already imagined doing it in her head.

"Woah, woah, woah, easy there I'm not here to start trouble at all." Cardin rose his hands up in an attempt to show peace. "In fact, I wanted to tell you all that I'm sorry for the other day,"

"…What?" Izuku was the first to speak up as everyone, even the normally stoic Shoto and Fumikage, gave Cardin a strange look.

"Ya see, I've been thinking ever since our fight Mina, and I was really just being a big jerk for no reason," Cardin began explaining to everyone as he walked up to the table and took a seat right next to Jaune. Eyes were still on him, many at the table ready to brawl should Cardin try anything with Eri quickly clinging to and hiding behind Izuku. "So I'm trying to better myself and make amends for being such a jerk, starting with good ole Jaune right here. Ain't that right buddy?"

"R-Right…" Jaune let out as he did his best to keep a smile on his face. He knew everything Cardin was saying was all a load of bull crap. The bully was just trying to play everyone for a fool and get Jaune to do something for him. But it's not like the blond had a choice in the matter. "And, uh, w-what were we gonna do again?"

"Hah, don't you go forgetting on me buddy, you remember right?" Cardin put a strong hand on Jaune's shoulder, making the golden blond flinch as Cardin put a tight hold on him. "We we're gonna work together on those extra assignments Ozpin gave us together, right?"

"O-Oh yeah…" Honestly given everything that's happened Jaune forgot about Cardin telling that to him last night. But it looks like he was gonna be doing both of their extra work for their history teacher. "S-Sorry, I remember now,"

"Welp, come on Jauney boy no better time like the present," Cardin motioned for Jaune to follow him as he got up from the table and started heading back to his teams table. "Those papers aren't gonna work on themselves."

"Wait," Before Jaune could follow Cardin, Izuku spoke up as he looked to his friend with a concerned expression. "Jaune is he actually telling the truth? If Cardin's forcing you do this…you can tell us."

No. Jaune couldn't. Telling them would mean Cardin telling everyone his secret which would spell game over for him. Jaune glanced towards Cardin and could see the bully was listening, just waiting for Jaune to give his answer. "…He…He's telling the truth Izuku." Jaune lied right to his best friend's face once more. "We…talked after school yesterday. Just…ya know…didn't wanna hold a grudge. It's fine."

"Are you sure." Izuku wasn't quite convinced. "If there's-"

"Izuku stop!" Jaune suddenly snapped making everyone's eyes widened, especially Izuku. "Izuku just…stop worrying about me. I don't need you checking up on me about every little thing ok! I said I'm fine, nothing's wrong so just…stop trying to help ok…"

"…Alright…." Izuku mumbled quietly as he lowered his gaze downward. A smirk appearing on Cardin's face as he watched the whole thing. "If you say so…"

Jaune simply gave a nod before he turned around to go join Cardin, the bully wrapping an arm around the golden blond as he whispered to him. "You really are an expert liar aren't you?" Cardin snickered out as Jaune looked at the ground. "Consider me impressed Jauney boy, that was really something."

"…" Jaune was silent as he glanced towards the table and saw Izuku looking at his food with a frown on his face. Shota and Fumikage simply went back to eating, Mina sent a light glare Cardin's way before going back to her food. And then there was his team. Nora and Ren looked surprised for sure, but Pyrrha looked right at him with a look of betrayal on her face. Jaune felt his gut twist itself in knots as he watched the red head get up from the table and quickly walk away and out of the lunch room with Ren and Nora quickly following her.

Things just continued to go downhill for him, didn't they?

Things always get worse before they get better right folks?

Well as I said folks there is one last chapter in the JNPR Arc

So make sure you don't miss it by favoriting, following, leaving a review and stay tuned for the next chapter...

"Forever Fall Forest"

For real this time, lol